On August 5, 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) entry vehicle successfully enteredMars atmosphere, flying a guided entry until parachute deploy. The Curiosity rover landedsafely in Gale crater upon completion of the entry, descent, and landing sequence. This papercompares the aerodynamics of the entry capsule extracted from onboard flight data, includingInertial Measurement Unit (IMU) accelerometer and rate gyro information, and heatshieldsurface pressure measurements. From the onboard data, static force and moment data hasbeen extracted. This data is compared to preflight predictions. The information collected byMSL represents the most complete set of information collected during Mars entry to date. Itallows the separation of aerodynamic performance from atmospheric conditions. The comparisonsshow the MSL aerodynamic characteristics have been identified and resolved to anaccuracy better than the aerodynamic database uncertainties used in preflight simulations. Anumber of small anomalies have been identified and are discussed. This data will help reviseaerodynamic databases for future missions and will guide computational fluid dynamics(CFD) development to improve predictions.
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